SCARBOROUGH, Tobago, (CMC) - Trinidad and Tobago put on a gallant bowling performance against Kenya on the final day of their round three Carib Beer Regional Cricket series but had to settle for a draw yesterday at Shaw Park in Tobago.
Set 211 runs to win in a minimum of 68 overs for victory, the Kenyans were tottering on 88 for eight, when batsmen Hitesh Modi (12 not out) and Francis Otieno (eight not out) accepted the offer of lights by umpires Clive Duncan and Harry Rajkumar, with nine of the mandatory 15 overs remaining.
T&T collected six points - for their first innings lead - from the encounter to push their tally to 24 points and joint second with West Indies-B, 12 behind runaway leaders Barbados (36).
Fast bowler Reyad Emrit in only his third first-class match for T&T, had his first five-wicket haul at this level, when he ended with the excellent figures of five for 12 from 13 overs.
He was well supported by talented all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, who picked two for 21, to end with a match haul of four for 41.
Bravo, who made 69 in his team's first innings, was later named man-of-the-match by adjudicator Salandy Sobers.
The Kenyans started their quest for their first victory in the Caribbean after lunch and received an immediate jolt when opening batsman Ravindu Shah (4) was brilliantly caught by Shazam Babwah at square-leg to give Emrit his first wicket with 12 runs on the board.
Eleven runs later, Emrit had Brijal Patel (2) caught at the wicket by Gibran Mohammed.
Bravo joined in the act with the score on 33 when he removed the stubborn Kennedy Obuya (23) caught at mid-off by Davindra Krishna.
The Kenyans, who trailed by 107 runs on first innings after making 150 all out in response to T&T’s 257, slipped into further trouble when the in-form Maurice Odumbe (3) was snapped up by Babwah off Bravo's bowling.
The visitors’ total stood at 43 for four at the tea interval.
Kenya by then had a required target of 168 in 40 overs in the final session to achieve an unlikely victory.
Skipper Steve Tikolo (18) and Modi pushed the score to 62 before Tikolo became his side's fifth victim leg-before to spinner Amit Jaggernauth to leave the innings in shambles on 62 for five.
Emrit returned for his second spell and removed three of Kenya's batsmen without conceding a run.
He accounted for Maurice Ouma (0), Martin Suji (0) and Collins Obuya (0) as the Kenyans slipped from 76 for five to 76 for eight.
At that stage Modi engaged himself in several time-wasting tactics much to the annoyance of the buoyant supporters who were now anticipating an outright victory.
Modi and Otieno then labouriously dragged their way to 88 before fading light brought a premature end to an exciting encounter.
Earlier, T&T, resuming on 34 for three with skipper Imran Jan on 12 and Babwah yet to score, found runs hard to come on a difficult batting track.
They suffered an early setback with the dismissal of Babwah (4) caught by Otieno off Suji's bowling.
Kenton Thompson (15), Jan (30), Emrit (6) and Mohammed (13) were all dismissed trying to force the pace.
T&T’s innings folded at 103, when Jaggernauth (4) was caught by Kennedy Obuya off Tikolo's bowling.
Fast bowler Suji, with four for 23, Odumbe, three for 16, and Tikolo two for 22 were the successful bowlers for the Kenyans.
Manager of the T&T team, Omar Khan praised the efforts of the team and said given the difficult pitch, it was a tremendous showing.
"It was a pleasing effort from this young team which is now beginning to show their fighting qualities. The bowling of Reyad Emrit is a revelation, which is the beginning of things to come in the future," Khan stated.
T&T will play the Windward Islands in a round four encounter starting on Friday at the Queen's Park Oval, while Kenya meet Jamaica in Grenada.